Re: Annual Meeting
Like Beach, Laddie, I'm very interested in learning more about the Wrightspeed story - so anything you guys can discover would be gratefully received. I think Capstone was probably genuinely blindsided by the Fulcrum development and that worries me. These days, with the power of modern computer fluid dynamics and direct laser sintered additive manufacturing, it should be possible to achieve very rapid prototyping with high confidence of producing a usable engine.
Where did the Fulcrum come from? If Wright is still mates with Musk, Elon may well have printed him up a few between Super Draco runs:
>The ability to 3D print the complex parts was key to achieving the low-mass objective of the engine. According to Elon Musk, "It’s a very complex engine, and it was very difficult to form all the cooling channels, the injector head, and the throttling mechanism. Being able to print very high strength advanced alloys ... was crucial to being able to create the SuperDraco engine as it is."[16]
The 3D printing process for the SuperDraco engine dramatically reduces lead-time compared to the traditional cast parts, and "has superior strength, ductility, and fracture resistance, with a lower variability in materials properties."[5]
According to Elon Musk, cost reduction through 3D printing is also significant, in particular because SpaceX can print an hourglass chamber where the entire wall consists of interval cooling channels, which would be impossible without additive manufacturing.[17]<